Please don’t pick me, Emerald prayed silently. Please don’t pick me...

“Miss Kane,” Professor Finn said with a smirk. “If you could make your way to the front of the class, please?”

Cursing inwardly, she stood up from behind her desk, smoothed down her green tartan skirt, and began to walk up the aisle to the front of the room, her eyes downcast. She could feel eyes burning into her as she passed her classmates, knowing without looking that many of them were sneering and sniggering at her.

Emerald was, no question, a smart girl. When she’d started at the Hexbourne Academy at the age of eleven, she’d quickly marked herself out as a very knowledgeable, academically gifted child. She was top of the class in magical theory.

But practical magic was another matter - she’d taken longer than most to master the simplest spells, and could never get the hang of more complex enchantments. Six years of struggling had barely improved the situation, and it had impacted on her socially - she was teased and taunted by many of her peers, to whom knowledge and intelligence meant nothing if you couldn’t manage so much as a human-to-animal transfiguration hex.

So it was that teachers like Professor Finn started using Emerald, more and more, as the guinea pig in their classes. Oh, not all the time, because that would seem discriminatory - but she was convinced she’d been picked on more than anyone else. She couldn’t be completely certain, but it was at moments like this - when she caught that cruel grin on Finn’s face before he quickly disguised it as an encouraging smile - that she strongly suspected he and his colleagues felt the same way about her as the students.

That it didn’t matter that she’d read almost all the books in the school library from cover to cover, and learned countless spells off by heart, some of which even the deputy principal probably wouldn’t have heard of. Because she’d never be able to use them. She was the least proficient sorcerer in her year.

It would have been one thing if they were demonstrating a simple levitation spell, or even a stun hex. But seventh-year students dealt with more advanced magic, and this particular enchantment would render her completely powerless and vulnerable. At the mercy of her capricious teacher, and her vindictive classmates.

“I’ve been given special permission to teach you this spell,” Finn had explained to them. “It’s normally against the law to use it, except in a life-or-death emergency, or if the subject consents to it first. Today, I’m going to teach you the enthralment hex.”

There had been a collective gasp from the students, none of whom had dared to believe they would ever learn such an advanced - and controversial - spell. Teachers usually frowned upon its use, but Finn had always advocated that the students be taught everything they could possibly need in their adult lives.

Emerald had inwardly pleaded harder than ever to not be part of the demonstration, hoping and wishing that Finn would call upon someone else. She had hoped in vain.

As she reached Finn’s desk, he stood up, his long black hair bouncing around his shoulders, and produced his wand. It was rare to see a wizard using a wand these days - most magicians chose a different object with which to channel their magic, while some could produce magic without needing a focus. Emerald had heard people joke that Finn chose to use the traditional wand because he was compensating for something.

Any notions about the Professor’s lack of manhood vanished from her mind as she wilted under the intensity of his gaze. “Miss Kane, do you consent to having the enthralment hex used upon you?”

She could say no. She always had a choice - so the teacher would claim. But as she glanced around the room, at the sneering faces of her peers, she imagined how much worse the taunts and mockery she endured on a daily basis would become. Her classmates already considered her useless and pathetic - if she refused, they’d call her a coward too.

So really, there was no choice. She hadn’t even been enthralled yet, but she already had to comply.

“Yes,” she mumbled, chewing her lip and tugging at the sleeves of her dark grey cardigan.

“Very good!” Finn brandished his wand, pointing the tip in Emerald’s direction. She braced herself as he concentrated his stare on her even more intently.

After a few seconds, he lowered the wand. She stared at him in puzzlement. Had he done it? She hadn’t heard him speak, although it might have been a non-verbal spell. But she didn’t feel any different.

He turned back to face the rest of the class. “Any suggestions on what we should have her do?” he said with a grin. “Hands up, please, and no shouting out - we don’t want to confuse her with too many instructions. And tell me, not her - because if it crosses a line, it won’t be happening,” he warned sternly.

As Emerald watched, several hands shot up. Finn picked Hannah, a skinny blonde in the front row, who specialised in transfiguration and would often partially modify friends and enemies alike into animalistic forms. “Make her bark like a dog,” she suggested, predictably.

Finn turned back to Emerald. “Bark like a dog,” he told her.

“Ruff!” Emerald replied loudly. “Ruff, ruff, ruff! Ruff! Ruff, ruff!”

She continued barking at the top of her voice, turning her head this way and that, the noise echoing around the ancient classroom, bouncing off the arched ceiling. It felt as natural and compulsive as breathing. She felt absolutely no need to stop. She could hear hysterical giggling from her classmates, but paid no attention. She felt completely at ease. Everything was fine. There was nothing to worry about.

Finally, Professor Finn called out, “Stop!”

Emerald’s barking ceased instantly. She stood and smiled blankly at him, still ignoring the laughter from her peers.

“One more suggestion,” Finn asked the others. A moment later, he chose Livi, the bane of Emerald’s existence. Tall, muscular yet graceful, Livi was a highly proficient witch of Indian descent and an expert in combat magic, having won many a duel in the past six years. The success had gone to her head, and she’d developed into a particularly malicious bully, picking on Emerald in particular because she despised the less magically-gifted girl’s weakness.

At any other time, seeing the Professor select Livi would have filled Emerald with dread. Now though, she registered the sight of the intimidating young woman’s outstretched hand and widening smirk without a flicker of concern.

“I’d like to use her as a bench for a moment, sir,” Livi sniggered. “Just to really test the potency of this spell.”

Finn hesitated, but not for long. “Very well,” he said, turning to Emerald once more. “Get down on your hands and knees, Miss Kane.”

She obeyed without question, without thought, dropping to her knees and placing her palms flat on the stone floor. Raising her head, she gazed out at the rows of desks in front of her - at the students sitting behind them, many of whom were now howling with laughter - and at Livi, who had stood up and was making her way to the front of the room. As the towering witch grew ever closer, Emerald didn’t shift her position, feeling perfectly comfortable, and she didn’t feel even the vaguest hint of alarm. Everything was just fine.

Livi stepped around her, and a moment later Emerald felt a weight press down on her back. Though she didn’t even feel the strain her arms were under, they stiffened to bear the weight, rigid as bars of steel.

“Just perch, Livi, don’t put too much weight on her,” Professor Finn ordered. Livi eased off slightly, but only slightly.

After a minute or two - although Emerald didn’t really notice how much time had passed - Finn sent Livi back to her seat. He then drew out his wand again and made a scribbling motion in mid-air, as if writing with a pencil.

In an instant, Emerald became fully aware again. She was aware of the hard, cold stone floor, and the pain in her hands and knees from being pressed against it for so long. She was aware of the ache in her arms from supporting Livi’s bulk. She was aware of how she had blindly obeyed, of how she had stopped thinking about anything at all except following commands, of how she hadn’t even noticed that she’d stopped thinking (because she’d stopped thinking)... Everything had felt like a dream, and the orders she’d followed had felt perfectly reasonable in the same way - when operating on dream logic, you don’t really notice that it doesn’t make sense. Now, though, the memories of acting like a dog, and of being used as a bench by her tormenter, made her blush furiously.

But what flustered her - and confused her - most of all, was the sudden awareness of how turned on she was.

Standing up and quickly making her way back to her seat, she glanced around anxiously and smoothed down her skirt, worried that her arousal was visible. She’d already been humiliated enough - the malicious laughs would only grow more pronounced if her classmates noticed her hard-on.

The rest of the lesson passed in a blur. Emerald tried to concentrate on the Professor’s words as he taught the students more about the enthralment hex - its history, the theory behind its use, when to use it and when not to - but the continued giggles and smirks of derision from all around her were very distracting. As was her erection, which simply refused to go away.

Her mind kept wandering back to the experience of being enthralled - of not thinking and simply acting, heedless of her own desires, ignorant of how ridiculous she was being made to behave. She’d grown used to feeling powerless over the past six years, but she’d never felt as vulnerable, as helpless, as she did right now, remembering being mind-controlled... even though she hadn’t felt bad at all in the moment. She knew she would have done anything that was asked of her - anything at all.

The more she thought about that, the harder she got. And the harder it was to resist the urge to reach down and rub herself through her tights...

When the bell rang from its tower at the heart of the school’s courtyard, Emerald was one of the first to exit Finn’s classroom, darting out with her books wrapped in her arms, doing her best to ignore the taunts being called after her by the other students. There was a ten-minute break before the next lesson - not long enough to get all the way to her dormitory and then back to the next classroom.

So instead, she practically sprinted through the ancient stone hallways to the nearest bathroom. To her great relief, all the cubicles were empty. Locking herself in the one furthest from the bathroom door, she dumped her books on the floor, pulled down her tights, skirt and panties, and sat on the porcelain toilet seat.

Reaching between her legs, she stroked her cock, fingertips caressing the tender, sensitive foreskin. Leaning back against the toilet, she exhaled deeply, allowing her mind to flicker back to the lesson. She recalled how she hadn’t even noticed that she’d fallen under the Professor’s control - that everything felt so normal. Better than normal, in fact. All her introspection, all her anxieties, had vanished in moments, leaving her docile and contented - happy, even. Happier than she could remember being in a while. She’d been happy to obey.

As her fingers wrapped around her rock-hard shaft, and her thumb rubbed her tip, she mentally relived barking like a dog, mindlessly and ceaselessly, until she’d been told to stop. She knew that she would have kept going otherwise. Finn had explained that enthralment hexes wore off eventually, but how long that would take depended on the magical strength of the hex-caster - and the willpower of the subject. Emerald felt sure that she would have remained placid and obedient all day long had Finn not nullified the trance.

What else could he have made her do? What would her classmates have made her do? Though Finn had cast the spell, if any of them had given her a direct command, she would have obeyed. They only neglected to do so at the Professor’s instructions. As her fingers slid up and down her dick faster and faster, she pictured Hannah making her act like more animals - a playful cat, or a dumb chicken or a cow... She pictured Livi making her humiliate herself more and more, pulling stupid facial expressions and letting her keep using her as furniture, like a stool or a footrest... She pictured the others making her expose herself, telling her to unbutton her shirt and show off her tiny tits, and pull down her panties and flash her cock...

She would have done it, she knew that. She wouldn’t have had a choice.

Did she even want a choice?

It was that thought - that question, to which a dark part of her already knew the answer - that brought her to that moment of hot, sweet, satisfying release, spurting sticky white cum over her hand and into the bowl beneath her.

As she sat and caught her breath, Emerald thought over what she’d just done - how she’d felt, and why. Shame began to fill her, making her blush a deep crimson. What kind of freak gets so turned on by being enthralled, she has to go and jack off in the toilet afterwards?

Noticing the time, she began to hurriedly clean herself up so she could go to her next lesson, bracing herself to endure more torment from the other young magicians. In that moment of self-loathing, she almost felt she deserved it.